Tuesday

Jul 17, 2018 at 10:55 AMJul 17, 2018 at 10:55 AM

Rahsaan Hall is on a mission.

A former prosecutor with the Suffolk County District Attorney’s office and now the director of the Racial Justice Program of the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, Hall is in the middle of an 11-month campaign to inform every Massachusetts voter, present and future, about the role of district attorneys.

“We need to focus on one of the most powerful people in the system,” Hall said to a group of 70-plus people who gathered at Lexington’s Temple Isaiah on July 12 to hear his organization’s pitch: “What A Difference a DA makes.”

Many unaware DA is elected

District attorneys, Hall said, hold the second most powerful position in the state’s criminal justice system. They serve as both judge and jury for more than nine out of every 10 criminal cases, closing 90 percent with plea bargains. DAs, not judges, decide if an individual is charged with a crime. They’re the ones who recommend bail or leaner sentences and diversions, such as drug treatment programs. And, Hall, added, DAs can use their philosophies to manipulate the political and legal systems.

“But there’s one person more powerful than the DA,” Hall said, “and that’s you all who have the power to vote.”

Hall’s campaign began in December and runs until the last poll closes on Election Day, Nov. 6. It includes data from a 2017 survey the ACLU of Massachusetts administered to 618 registered voters.

Fewer than four of 10 people surveyed (38 percent) did not know that district attorneys are four-year elected officials and answer only to voters. Fewer than half (48 percent) believe the current system is working and 84 percent believe change is needed to abolish racial imbalance. The poll was conducted by Anderson Rogers Research of Boston.

Small changes would have big impact

The scales of justice are heavily weighted in favor of whites, the connected and the moneyed, Hall said, citing data that blacks and Latinos make up 20 percent of the state’s population yet account for more than 50 percent of the prison population.

“You have to believe in the inherent criminality in black and brown folks, or you have to believe in the inherent injustices in the system,” he said, adding that many individuals charged but not convicted of a crime are behind bars because they cannot afford even a $500 bail.

He referred to the Massachusetts Bail Fund, a program that bailed 1,000 poor individuals charged with misdemeanors or nonviolent offenses. When those individuals finally had their cases heard in court, weeks and even months after the individual arrests, more than half were dismissed.

“Those are people who would have otherwise sat in jail,” Hall said.

Jailing individuals while they await trial jeopardizes their jobs, housing and relationships, he said in an earlier interview.

Some changes being made

District attorneys nationwide have long been opposed to criminal law reform, he said, such as raising the minimum age a person can be tried as an adult from 18 to 19.

“We have to consider who we were at 18 and who we are now,” he said.

Advocates, including the ACLU, are working to remove antiquated and ineffective policies. In April, Gov. Charlie Baker signed the criminal justice reform bill that overhauls much of the system. It expunges some juvenile and young adult records as well as adult records for convictions that are no longer crimes, such as marijuana possession. It also encourages a sliding scale for bail.

Scott Ferson, campaign coordinator for Middlesex County District Attorney Marion Ryan, a Democrat, said Ryan believes the “What a Difference a DA Makes” campaign is “great, and welcomes their ideas.” Ryan is the only Massachusetts DA to support the Senate’s version of the Criminal Justice Reform Bill.

Ryan implemented a policy last fall to remove bail for low-level and misdemeanor crimes because of the potential harm caused in “warehousing people who cannot afford to pay.”

Less than half face challengers

Ryan is one of the five district attorneys that faces a challenger this year; Massachusetts has 11 DAs and all are up for re-election. Ryan and Democratic challenger Donna Patalano will square off at 7 p.m., Tuesday, July 24 at First Parish Arlington. The debate is part of the ACLU’s program and is free and open to the public.

Only 23 percent of DA races have been contested in the last 20 years. Contests, Hall said, bring fresh ideas to the table and can help change the role of DA to one that focuses more on training and diversion rather than imprisonment.

“We need to change the conversation,” he said. “A conviction does not always require us to put people in cages.”

The event at Temple Isaiah was co-sponsored by The Greater Boston Interfaith Organization, Hancock Church, Congregation Shalom, the ACLU of Massachusetts and the Mass Incarceration Working Group of the First Parish Unitarian Universalist of Arlington.